Notes My Yoga Practice Cloud Hands Blog
On Becoming a Yoga Teacher
Daily Responsibilities
1. Commitment to Being Fully Prepared and Fully
Present for
Teaching Today's Yoga Class
Do you have a welcoming, courteous, and helpful
manner?
Do you greet students by their name?
Do you have a lesson plan?
Do you have a quote or saying ready to share?
Are you calm, encouraging, positive and joyful?
Do you have the music ready?
Are you well groomed?
Are your clothes neat, clean and appropriate?
Do you have a welcoming, courteous, and helpful manner?
Do you come early? Are you ready
on time?
Do you chat, answer questions, and communicate before
and after class.
Do you encourage questions and comments?
Do you begin and end class on time?
Are you attentive to the room environment: fans,
lights, safety, etc.?
Do you remind students/practitioners of
principles such as self-discovery,
enjoyment,
non-competitiveness, meeting inner challenges, calm mind?
Do you encourage them to breath fully, frequently, and
deeply?
Do you encourage students to “Respect your
comfortable capacity.”
Do you avoid lengthy personal stories
and digressions?
Do you avoid lecturing?
Do you stay focused on yoga work, yoga techniques, and
yoga instruction?
Today's class is a unique opportunity
to encourage others in a positive manner.
Are you using this opportunity wisely?
2. Commitment to a Personal Yoga Practice and
a
Personal Physical Conditioning Program
Are you in shape, in condition, strong, flexible,
limber, lively?
Do you practice yoga at home every day?
Is your body weight reasonable for your size and age?
Do you take care of your health and follow the advice
of your physician?
Do you eat and drink properly, wisely, and appropriate
to the season?
Do you avoid using recreational drugs?
Do you actively follow a cross training
program?
Are you taking constructive action to improve your
health and well-being?
Are you properly rested, relaxed, energized?
Are you actively cross training for strength,
endurance, and flexibility?
You must set a high standard for good
healthy living. You must be a good
example of a person living a healthy lifestyle.
You must be a person who
lives the yoga lifestyle and practices yoga each
day.
3. Commitment to Being a Professional Yoga Teacher
Are you taking yoga teacher training
workshops?
Are you making progress towards a Registered Yoga
Teacher certification by
the National
Yoga Alliance?
Are you engaged in a formal yoga teacher training
development program?
Are you reading and studying yoga literature and
classics.
Do you have memberships in professional yoga
organizations, e.g.,
California
Yoga Teachers Association.
Do you have short and long term plans for professional
development?
Are your required yoga certifications current?
Are you committing time, money and resources in your
professional development?
4. Ethical Practices
Code of Ethics
5. Personal Study with Advanced Teachers
6. Determination to Improve as a Teacher
7. Balancing Set Routines with Creative Routines
8. Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher 200 Hour RYT
9. Studying and Learning from Yoga Books and Yoga
Classics
Active Reading and Research into Yoga
On Becoming a Yoga Teacher
Links, Bibliography, Resources
AYA Teacher Guide 10Kb
The
Benefits of Teaching Yoga. By Swami
Nishchalananda Saraswati. 30Kb.
Four Yoga Teachers
Discuss the Best Job They've Ever Had. By Nancy Gerstein.
Guiding
Yoga's Light: Yoga Lessons for Yoga Teachers. By Nancy Gerstein.
Pendragon
Publishers, 2004. 296 pages. ISBN: 0972280987.
VSCL.
How
to Find the Right Yoga Teacher 7Kb. The "right" yoga
teacher should pass the CALM test. They should be good at Communicating, Assisting
you with your efforts
to enjoy good form, Listening carefully, and frequently suggesting Modifications.
Mindfulness
Yoga: The Awakened Union of Breath, Body, and Mind. By Frank
Jude Boccio. Boston, MA, Wisdom Publications. Index, bibliography, notes, 340 pages. ISBN:
0861713354. VSCL.
Secrets
of Teaching Yoga. By Pau Jerard.
Self-Awakening Yoga: The Expansion of Consciousness Through the
Body's Own Wisdom. By Don Stapleton, Ph.D. Director of the Nosara Yoga
Institute,
and former Yoga Director of the Kirpalu Center. Includes CD-V of
guided explorations. Rochester, Vermont, Healing Arts Press, 2004. 304
pages.
ISBN: 0892811838. VSCL.
Suggestions for Beginning Yoga Students
Teaching Yoga: Essential Foundations and Techniques
Yoga: Links, Bibliography, Quotes, Notes
The Yoga Handbook: An Inspirational Reference for Teaching and Home Practice.
By Stephanie Keach. Sunny Keach, 2003. 240 pages. ISBN:
0974272108.
On Becoming a Yoga Teacher
Quotations
"Teaching Yoga also gives us the impetus to learn more
about Yoga and deepen our own practice. We are obliged to widen our understanding of Yoga and its vast
repertoire of practices and to develop awareness of their effects on our body, mind and
emotions. Only when we do this are we ready to share these practices with others so that, with
guidance, they too may discover their effects and benefits for themselves. Teaching
Yoga requires us to deepen our self perception and understanding. Without this we cannot
help others to deepen their understanding. Teaching Yoga can be a vital factor in our own
transformation as well as that of our students. Teaching Yoga is about developing our
intuition and sensitivity so that we know what is appropriate for an individual or for the group. We
learn to ‘feel’ a situation and know when it is right to offer guidance and support, when to
change tack, when to step back and when to be silent."
- Swami
Nishchalananda Saraswati
"The first thing a Yoga teacher should instill, in his or her students,
is self-motivation. The serious Yoga student must be a self starter. This is a person who
practices Yoga at home, as well as in class. They don’t depend on their friends to come to
class, and they show up like “clockwork.” How can you make your Yoga students become self
motivators? You must show up to class early, enthused, and energized. Encourage all of
your students and sincerely praise their achievements. The truth is, Yoga is like music, you
can teach a student the basics, but to be a master teacher, you want to stir the creativity from
within. When your
students become creators, you can help them refine their Yoga practice and watch
them become self motivators. A truly great teacher will produce teachers, who
surpass him or her; and isn’t “passing the torch” what it’s all about?"
- Paul
Jerard
"Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and
others."
- Buddha
Valley Spirit Yoga
Yoga Practice, Education, and Research
© 2003-2012, Green Way
Research, Red Bluff, California
Michael P. Garofalo, All Rights Reserved
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This webpage was last updated on June 1, 2012.